The winner is Mayor Ivy Taylor, who listened to the wishes of the vast majority of residents deeply concerned and skeptical about the issue. The route chosen was faulty from the start. The proposed streetcar would serve no area except The Pearl district and did not even go to the zoo or the Children's or Witte Museum (so much for serving tourists and schoolchildren).

Mayor Taylor was not about to be suckered into a billion-dollar fantasy impact study after having heard the same baloney that said the East Side would greatly benefit form the Alamodome and the AT&T Center (where are the jobs?). The riders were also winners because VIA was attempting to use all its reserves to subsidize a streetcar to nowhere. The main losers were County Judge Nelson Wolff and the chambers of commerce. I won't forget when I vote in November.

I know a very hot place is possibly getting a skin of ice over it, but, yes, here I am, an unrepentant conservative, defending the Clintons' astronomical speakers' fees.

I agree with Maureen Dowd that it's ridiculous how much those three are being paid to pontificate, but it is still a free country and, as far as I know, no one's holding a gun to the heads of those agreeing to pay the outrageous sums that Bill, Hillary and Chelsea are demanding.

This well-written view by Melinda Henneberger sadly points out the terrible consequences of failed VA leadership and a lack of oversight by a do-nothing Congress.

We all just wonder what it will take to get the responsible VA leadership and good treatment for our military men and women that they deserve.

Andrew Sundene

Value of college

Re: “Vocational ed needs restoration to its old prominence,” Bennie Wilson, Other Views, July 20:

Amen. I have said for a long time that college is not the end-all, be-all. Some kids just don't belong in college. How many young people with diplomas are standing in the unemployment line? Most are unemployed or underemployed.

I graduated from Burbank in 1948. We didn't have too many scholarships, student loans, etc. Our parents usually did the best they could. Most kids graduated from high school, and most found jobs. Two of the teachers did a lot for them. One taught shop, the other taught office and was in charge of distributive education. Mostly boys took shop and were really good at it and liked it. In distributive education, the students went to school half a day and worked half a day.

The teacher also found jobs for students who wanted to work during holidays. When they graduated, they already had a work ethic. There are too many kids who don't know how to do anything if it doesn't concern a computer. We need to get back to teaching skills. It couldn't hurt.